Hi everyone, thanks for tuning in. I’m Luis Alis, CEO and founder of Nagareboshi, a game and entertainment localization company. I am just a regular video game and Japanese culture loving guy from Spain, but I am also about to make a huge gamble, turn a corner in my career and become a game creator.
It is exciting, AND and a little bit scary too. After a few false starts, I've decided to expand the interests and scope of my company and take that extra long mile that goes from doing the localization of games towards doing the games themselves. Yes, we're starting Nagareboshi Kaihatsu for the development of games.
For the largest part of 2013 we have been working as very small group of people (one game director, one programmer and one production manager) to create a game prototype. I am confident it can be a solid mechanic for even more games in the future, but right now we’re focused on making just one game. And our first game will be a very Japanese game for a global audience.
Why Japanese? Because I am a westerner who's so keen on Japanese culture and entertainment, it could even be construed as a handicap. In truth, my love for manga, anime, toys, games, music and movies from Japan has been a way to inadvertently transform my most intense hobby into my professional career. And it’s spawned more than the half of my life, so that’s who I am. And it’s not going to change. In fact, I’ve been doing everything to make sure it gets bigger and stronger and this initiative is just a long step in that direction. For the past 11 years I have been localizing Japanese videogames for a living, so it’s no surprise that now that I decided to make video games, right from the start I had a clear idea I wanted to make something from a Japanese aesthetic and sensibility. I developed my passion for games at the pinnacle of the Japanese dominated arcade era. That did nothing but expand when I was exposed to a huge Super Nintendo game library during my late teens. I love all sorts of games, old and modern, but I have a special place in my heart for pixel art and Japanese retro aesthetic. And you will be able to see all of that in Kana Ninja, our first game. But more on that on a minute.
So what am I now? Game creator, developer, director, producer... It would be difficult for me to pinpoint with accuracy the limits on all these four fine occupations. I see them as overlapping a lot, but that could be only because we are a very small team, and we do a lot of hat changing. I think this is something that will come up more than once in our story, because I am a bit of a control freak, so I tend to be involved mentally and physically on everything related to our company and our first game. I know if our nascient development team is to be successful, eventually I will trust more and more work to other capable members of the team as we move along. But it will always be my job to conceive this and get it done from top to bottom, dawn to sunset. Here’s where my story as small videogame creator begins. Of course it's not only me. I'm just driving the bus, but there's going to be lots of people joining me for the ride. You'll be hearing from the rest of the team as well, along with all artists and great collabo people who'll be a part of this. Stay tuned! And thanks for your support. Please let us know anything on your mind regarding this via comments, mail or any other communication form this side of smoke signals. Cheers everybody!
